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Mixed Media-Encaustics

Encaustic is made from bee’s wax and resin (usually damar). Hot wax was first used as a way of dealing with leaks on ancient boats, ultimately pigment was added and the wax was used to decorate the boats. Encaustic was first used as an artistic medium by the Egyptians and Greeks. They are best known for their encaustic funerary portraits which still exist today; they also used encaustic for wall painting. The process and interest in it were lost during the medieval and Renaissance periods. In the late Renaissance the process was revived because mural painters needed something that would supply permanent results under drastic conditions. Artists in the mid twentieth century, perhaps Jasper Johns most notably, rediscovered the process and it has been gaining popularity ever since. Its high archival quality and its finished surface—the encaustic medium provides depth and changes to the image as the viewer moves in front of it, as well as the ease of cleaning and buffing the surface—are important reasons for its positive reception.

Photography techniques have been used by artists for hundreds of years; film and processing methods however were invented in the mid-nineteenth century. After a short history, the age of film and film processing has been overtaken by digital technology and, for most, is nearing its end.

Enthusiasm for future directions as well as a sense of history and tradition help propel Michael Beatty’s interest in these mediums. He believes how one remains mindful of the past, of artistic timelines—those involving technology and process as well as those of artistic progress and creativity—should be a conscious part of the artist’s search. Thoughts of time and its interrelationship in many manifestations: the time of a journey, the time of history, the time of growth and aging, the time that is momentary and that which is geologic, are also part of this process.

R Michael Beatty’s encaustics cover multiple processes and multiple steps, each having its own timeline, from hand coloring and encaustic through photography to the most modern printing and conservation practices. The process involves both the conscious use of process—step by step, how you crop, color, print, think, react—and the serendipitous excitement of not being able to predict, exactly, what a work will look like as it reveals itself. The process he follows is long and exacting, with both control and chance, moment by moment, playing a part,

Due to the wax process, handling and moving encaustic pieces should be done with care. Once they are in place, encaustics can be among the most archival of objects. Like all paintings, photographs and many other objects (the list of items affected by the sun goes on and on including books, furniture, fabric, etcetera), the artwork should not be hung on an exterior-facing wall, over a heating vent, or in direct sunlight.